Geek Habitat

Warning: Extremely pathetic, whining rant follows.

I’ve had severe neck and back pain since Thursday evening due to what I assume is a pinched nerve in my right shoulder. Turning my head to the right is especially excruciating, and my wrist and hand are alternately partially numb or throbbing in pain.

The direct cause? Too much time on the computer. Other activities, such as long bike rides or even too much writing (pen & paper), have caused this in the past. It’s probably the worst pain I’ve been in since I had to wimp out of PT several months back due to neck and lower back pain.

As if the neck and back pain weren’t enough …

Last night, I’m seated on the floor, leaning my neck and back into a wall of pillows I’ve piled against the sofa for support/pain relief. We’re watching a couple episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space 9, and I start sneezing. And I couldn’t stop… for hours!

Now, anyone who knows me is used to my occasional sneezing fits — no fewer than 3 sneezes in quick succession, and often many more than that. Occasionally, I’ll sneeze so many times Justin will only half-jokingly threaten to call “911″. He’s had to issue that threat several times since last night, I’m sneezing so much. Truly some of the worst allergies of my life, and I’m still wondering what the *!@*# is in the air that’s causing my body to over-react. I checked pollen.com around 2 AM and they gleefully reported San Antonio’s pollen levels as “MILD”. Whatever!

I spent most of the night alternately sneezing or trying not to sneeze, including two soaks in a hot bath tub with a warm, wet towel over my face — to soothe my itchy and watery eyes, raw nose and nasal passages. When I’m not in a fitful sleep, I’m in that horrific “Benadryl fog” that results from taking antihistamines. A shitty state of being depressed and completely lacking energy, with slowed breathing and reaction times, jangled nerves and no ability to focus (so reading anything other than magazines is out of the question!) Couple that with the continuing pain from my neck, back and now (thanks to the allergies) a severe sinus headache, raw nose and throat, and you have this pathetic entry that throughly sums up my current state of being.

So, yeah, other than that I’ve been having a swell weekend. How about you!?

The 3 bad things? (1) Neck & back pain; (2) Severe, kill-me-now-already, allergies; (3) The resulting weekend that includes no exercise, no flying, and ultimately no fun whatsoever.

Oh, if you’re looking for more good news, apparently Space Shuttle Discovery has more issues.